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Show iesiiibw fridge is the. Gem d Lake Powell BY DICK WILSON Lake Powell of southeastern southeast-ern Utah what words can a mortal find that express an adequate picture of its beauty, beau-ty, color and grandeur? Our continuing episode of Lake Powell adventures this week will attempt to convey a portion por-tion of that- amazing water route from the Escalante River Ri-ver to Rainbow Bridge Marina. Mar-ina. After an intensely, interesting interest-ing trail bike ride down the eastern "extension of the Old Mormon Trail we met our boats and companions oppo- . site of "Hole in the Rock." After the food intake steo was accomplished we loaded our bikes aboard the 18 foot . boats and headed across the lake. . We didn't attempt cycling to the top of Hole in the Rock it was all we could do to hike . up without the aid of ropes. But , 89 years ago the Old ' Mormon Trail was a main, highway across south-' south-' eastern Utah, ... Pioneer Achievement The pioneering achievement achieve-ment of that' expedition cannot can-not be minimized. We might best review a few" historical facts on this matter. Mormon pioneers answered , a call from their church to' settle in southeast Utah. In 1879 there were two known routes over which they, could travel. One, the northern route, was by' the . Old Spanish Trail via a spot later to be known ' as Moab. The other route was by way of Lee's Ferry .and Moenkopi, an Arizona Indian In-dian village. The latter routs was decided against because of reports, of unfriendly activities activ-ities by the Indians. The group decided to in-. in-. vent, a short cut and in the . midst of their terrible difficult, diffi-cult, journey, they came ta the edge of the Colorado River Ri-ver gorge 64 miles southeast of the town of . Escalante. This interesting 64 miles is now passable with an automobile auto-mobile but it is preferable to be equipped . for whatever . damage . new washouts might cause. Down a Narrow Crack The 250 men, women and children comprising the missionary mis-sionary expedition stood on the edge of the 2000-foot cliff that barred their progress and prayed for endurance and a route. The answer came with the discovery of a narrow crack, just wide enough for two or three men, but not for wagons. Blasting powder and ingenuity in-genuity mixed well together and opened the crack so that a descent to the Colorado could be made both wagon wa-gon wheels scraping the rock walls. The horses were unwilling un-willing to lead the first wagon wa-gon down the Hole, and they would rear and surge backward back-ward when given a glimpse of the descent. Finally the men hitched up two blind horses and they, by feeling with their hoofs, led the wagon wa-gon train to the bottom. 1800 head of horses and cattle accompanied the wagon wag-on train and most of the stock behaved at the edge of the cliff but there were a few animals that slipped and tumbled the 200 feet to their deaths. Across the River The 83 wagons were then ferried across the Colorado - : . " v VY"-' N Y 'J ' i , Y , Y- - -s . x v. .5 , f ') Y - v . : Yx Y Yvy Y Y r : : . , ... ' f , ?'-,,, k . . Y., . . 'VY - - ;iV ov' $ . : . r i Y V 4 1"Y 1 C (.kY T l;VYy Y V'Y ! 1 ' -v Y-y . y. 1 Uir. ri-'b!'f --A;y , rYiYi - - - - 'Y 7 .... - Y : Y . , : .: :-Y :The unique floating Rainbow Bridge Marina serves Rainbow Bridge. boaters from a well-protected inlet en route to and. the train proceeded up Cottonwood Hill which we, with our mechanical horses, found . so nerve-wracking on, our descent. If you haven't read the whole story of this memorable trek across southeast south-east Utah you ought to do so. A copy is available in . the Moab Library. This main route was abandoned aban-doned two years later for a better crossing of the river 40 miles north Hall's Crossing. During our filming expedition of Lake Powell a short time ago we climbed to the top of Hole in the Rock and received a feeling of awe for the pioneers who endured the trek. With our trail bikes aboard the boats we next visited the Escalante River for scenes of a few of the natural wonders won-ders that are so numerous there. The serpentine, meandering meander-ing route of the Escalante has been invaded by the waters wa-ters of Lake Powell for a considerable length thus making ma-king accessible many notable . creations. Waterfalls, arches, amphitheaters, and cathedrals cathed-rals exist in dramatic shapes shap-es and sizes in the Escalante portion of Lake Powell. Great . Experience One of my most thrilling inspirations came while floating float-ing beneath Gregory Natural Bridge with motor silent. It was a striking masterpiece of God's whole creation. It's gone now, beneath the rising waters, fit only for a skin diver's pleasure. But there are others in the same area-natural area-natural bridges that will allure al-lure and charm and provid3 inspiration. At the mouth of the Escalante Escal-ante our trail bikers got itchy accelerator fingers and decided de-cided to make their own Hole in the Rock trek. We heaved and grunted and got our motorcycles out of tho canyon over an old miner's trail. Our plans were to spend an afternoon on the lower portion of the Water-pocket Water-pocket Fold, an 80-mile long geologic feature that stretch--es all the way from Fishlake f;Y.- -.;' ...... . . I ; . 1 1 YY, L ' Y v -Y-- :'Y-" " : The Escalante Riv;r branch of Lake Powell provides pro-vides narrow and meandering passage ways for b"at parties. Boat camping is superb in hundreds of unimproved locations all along the lake shore National Forest on the extreme, ex-treme, western edge of the Canyonlands country. We had our sleeping bags and food for one meal, intending in-tending to meet the boars the next morning for breakfast break-fast on the other side of the ridge across 1 from Hall's Crossirtg. Waterpocket Fold . folded us right up into its vast wilderness and we didn't make it down the hill for two and a half days. During that time we kept our stomachs stom-achs in shape by eating roasted cactus. The most difficult dif-ficult part of the trip was the 50 some times that we had to lower our 180-pound bikes by rope. , South of Escalante But it was south of Escal ante that our greatest thrills were to be had, down in the Rainbow Bridge country. , Boating down this stretch of Lake Powell means trying try-ing to comprehend and name all the varying colors of the rock. Rock the color of September Sep-tember leaves at any time of year and in December these -were warm colors. It's in and around the mouth of the San Juan River that the' most extensive slick-rock slick-rock of the Canyonlands is found You can spend days exploring Moab's slickrock country you can spend months there on the northeast north-east slope of Navajo Mountain. Moun-tain. With a boat and a trail bike there' are new worlds to conquer along Lake Powell. A recent addition to the comforts ' of Lake Powell is the Rainbow Bridge Marina. This unique marina is a completely com-pletely floating arrangement situated between a cliff-bound cliff-bound passage of water. Facilities Fa-cilities include boat docking, ranger station, general store, fuel depot, and public toileU all this completely suspended suspend-ed in the space between the cliffs in an unforgetable array. ar-ray. Let's pause here for now at Rainbow Bridge Marina. We'll finish our cruise of Lake Powell next week with a climatic climb of the world's largest natural bridge. it 1 V Yx Y C?YX Y ' " J Y.-rY Y YY Y Li Marine, & |